Montana must pass legislation on Friday to ban TikTok, text that is difficult to apply but adds to the pressure already heavily placed in the United States on Chinese group ByteDance’s popular platform.
The House of Commons in this predominantly Republican northwestern U.S. state on Thursday voted 60-39 on Bill SB419, which “bans TikTok in Montana.”
The final vote is scheduled for Friday – the Senate had already approved this text in March. After ratification by the governor, it must come into effect on January 1, 2024.
“It’s time to stand up to the Chinese and ban TikTok,” Representative Brandon Ler launched after indicting China that “wants our data and our intellectual property” and an application that “protects the health and safety, particularly.” of the younger” endangered. .
From Montana to the White House, many elected Democrats and Republicans have accused the use of short and entertaining videos of being used by the Chinese government to spy on and manipulate users.
The US Congress is working on bills to ban it in the country.
TikTok, which has always denied these allegations, has been trying in vain to reassure the authorities for several years.
“This law represents a shocking violation of the rights of the people of Montana regarding freedom of expression” and sets a “disastrous precedent,” TikTok’s operations director Vanessa Pappas responded after the Senate vote at the beginning of the march.
The text “will exclude Montana from a community of 150 million people in the United States,” she said.
The follow-up of the courts
According to a spokeswoman for the motion contacted on Thursday, the authors of this law “themselves admitted that they have no realistic plan to put into practice this attempt to censor American voices.”
“The constitutionality of this text will be decided in court. We will continue to fight for TikTok users and creators in Montana,” she added.
The law bans app stores, which are essentially Google (Android) and Apple (iOS), from distributing TikTok to users in Montana.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests from AFP.
The text names fines for companies in the event of violations, but not for users. It also clarifies that if TikTok were bought by a company from a country that is “not considered an enemy” of the United States, the law would be void.
Several independent experts noted that the law would certainly be challenged in court and unlikely to be enforced.
“It raises a lot of thorny issues, and it’s not clear how the state can defend itself and win,” noted Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond.
“Montanas want as little regulation as possible,” he said. “We certainly couldn’t take their firearms away from them.”
“Anti-Chinese prejudices”
“SB419 perfectly sums up the absurdity and bigotry of the Montana Convention,” Keegan Medrano, an official with the local branch of the powerful ACLU, tweeted Wednesday.
“The TikTok ban is unconstitutional in terms of freedom of expression, impractical as it exempts ISPs and VPNs (virtual private networks), and is fueled by anti-Chinese prejudice.”
At the end of March, the head of the application, Shou Chew, was attacked by elected officials from a US parliamentary committee during a hearing that lasted several hours.
Speaking as part of the “ongoing negotiations with ByteDance,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House spokeswoman, clarified that the government “strongly supports” the RESTRICT Act, one of the bills aimed at banning TikTok.
If ByteDance doesn’t find an American buyer for the platform in “three to six months,” TikTok will likely be banned by the end of the year, according to Webdush Securities analyst Dan Yves.
The service is already banned on the smartphones of officials and employees of many organizations, from the European Commission to the Canadian, British and American governments.